However, it made us think. Remember when you didn’t need to Root/Jailbreak/Homebrew to get what you wanted out of your smartphone? Maybe it’s the curse of being an early adopter of smartphone tech, but I recall when I could go to thousands of sites and get whatever Palm or Windows Mobile/Pocket PC app I wanted, without Microsoft, Palm, or anyone else having to “approve” it. This certainly started shifting once OTA (that’s over the air for the two people who did not know) installs were allowed by the OS, but it was a shift to more freedom, not less: Suddenly one didn’t even need a desktop to install the latest and greatest apps. Sure, there was app piracy, but as a recent article cites, we even have that with the current business model, and it’s less a big deal than people are lead to believe.

Then came the iPhone, and with it the idea (or maybe obsession) with the original manufacturer controlling the content on your device. You have one (official) place to get your apps, period. One can jailbreak one’s phone and get around that, but it’s still a work-around. The other big three in the US added Marketplaces of their own, but you could still go anywhere. With WebOS, Palm ditched that philosophy, giving us an App Store. True, Palm has been insanely supportive of the Homebrew scene, but it’s still a solution that requires a (built in) hack. I know you can sideload on Android, but why when everything is right in the included Marketplace. Now Microsoft will be joining the “Walled Garden” business model, which basically makes it the official, accepted business model for smartphones.

The oddest thing, to me, is that this is something Windows Mobile Developers and users used to mock iPhone devotees about. Now, they’re stuck with it as well. For all their sneering, Redmond apparently saw that it was a legitimate business model, and that people would actually go for it. I don’t know if anyone can really blame them, but it seems odd as hell.

With that said, there’s certainly one thing we can blame them for, and that’s the removal of the ability to cut and paste. I seriously want to know who thought this was a good idea. To me, the downsides of the iPhone have always been:

I can actually deal with 2 & 3 if I have to, and 1 & 4 are “fixed” via Jailbreaking. But 5? I blog off my smartphones and cut and paste is one of my “killer apps”. I could cut and paste on my Palm V and my HP Jordana, for goodness sake. Heck, even Apple has reversed their stance on the matter, and added C&P. With the function built into Android, BlackberryOS, WebOS, and even iPhoneOS, this will make Microsoft the only US Smartphone OS without this very, very basic function.

In a previous article, I likened Windows 7 to a village finding out that the sleeping giant hasn’t been asleep, and has in fact been taking notes. Now I need to amend that; it looks like the giant is at least half asleep.
Wake up, Microsoft!

This has led many pundits to posit that Apple is really targeting Google via HTC. Google’s already come out with a statement saying they support their partners, so they’re certainly not ignoring it. Still, I believe there’s more to it than just coming at Google sideways…

If Apple wanted a proxy war with Google, it seems to me it would be much easier to go after largely cash-strapped Motorola, makers of the one Android phone actually *advertised* as an iPhone Killer to the general public. HTC is a much larger company, and it does more than just Android phones -which I think is part of the issue.

I’m not saying Apple *isn’t* doing this because of Google, but I also think there’s a good reason they’re choosing to do so via HTC. People have been looking for an iPhone killer for years now, and while Google’s OS is a step towards it in general, it’s the design geniuses at HTC who are most likely to implement it.

HTC’s “Sense” (formerly SenseUI, formerly TouchFLO, formerly HTC Home) can be found atop Android, Windows Mobile, and has proven so popular that HTC has even made a version to run atop a “dumb phone”. Sense is such a great layer over the OS that it’s basically a separate GUI. You can do almost every basic thing in Sense and never have to look at the “guts” of your phone OS. Combine that with the fact that HTC as a company also manufactures handsets for other companies, coupled with their steadily growing market share and visibility, garnish it with the availability on every major US carrier and it really makes sense for Apple to go at them over Google: They’re the ones who are in a real position to leverage Google’s OS into a place where it can threaten iPhone Sales. You can pick up any HTC Phone, on any network, and get the same basic experience. Your average user won’t likely notice if they’re running 1.4, 1.6, 2.0 or 2.1 – they’ll see Sense and be able to use the phone in a slick fashion, just like their old phone.

Compare that to Apple’s iPhone – you have a choice of one network, two models, and while the user experience is consistent between them, if you’re coming from another Smartphone you don’t have a standard, familiar Sense-like interface. You have to learn how to use it (horrors).

So yeah, I think HTC’s a pretty obvious target, even without Android in the mix. Apple’s found a bit of rolled up newspaper to use on the dog nipping at their heels. Which actually leads to my next point – I don’t think even Apple thinks they can “win” this case. I think the goal is to tie up money and time with legal fees, and bleed HTC as much as they can. Reason being, so *much* Prior Art exists with some of these patents. Take a look at Engadget’s breakdown of some of the patents (from an *actual lawyer). Just the unlock function alone has been implemented so many times since way before the patent was granted (last month? What the heck?). I also think that a few of these patents are for technology that existed on my first Treo, if not on my Visorphone (and the patents predate it, but Apple never seemed to get around to suing Handspring or Palm).

Finally, I have to freely confess that I’m going to enjoy watching this.

This is part of a larger issue that I think we’ll be hearing more about. I’m sure the last thing some people want is for their bosses to do a Twitter or Buzz search on them. On the plus side, paranoid spouses have a way to keep track of their significant smothered (and yes, that’s a plus. Tracking anklets are expensive). Being the cute girl at the comic shop probably gets a lot more awkward when all the seedy guys* who keep staring at you suddenly know exactly when you’re there.

This is not a doom-and-gloom “BURN YOUR GPS ENABLED DEVICE”. Technology is not the culprit on this one. Indeed, you don’t even need a mobile device to leave this particular door wide open. What it is (to this blogger, anyway) is a call to common sense. If your address is out there, don’t announce when you won’t be at it. If you’re pretty sure your address isn’t out there, tweet away.
In the meantime, if anyone needs me, I’ll be in my Panic Room. Watching you blog.

*No, I am not saying all guys at comic shops are seedy. I’m talking about a specific type. The skeevy guys who think that handing a girl a Neil Gaiman comic means she’ll fall in love with them.

On the one hand, I commend Microsoft for realizing the Windows Mobile UI needed a complete overhaul. They are taking a lot of risks with one, and I can honestly say I know a lot of people who will be interested in this platform who would never have touched Windows Mobile before.

Its almost hard to believe that this is the same company who released WM6.5 a year ago, which proved to be a minor update to 6.1, which was in turn a minor update to 6.0 and even 5. In comparison, this is HUGE, and groundbreaking.

On the other hand, they may be alienating their current market, who actually enjoy having the power of a desktop on their phones. A few days ago, I shared some sour feelings about where 7 was heading based on rumors. Many current Windows Mobile users have stuck with Microsoft because of the power and versatility of the platform, with 10+ years of compatible applications available, true multitasking and nearly total UI customization. The new platform, however, will only allow “marketplace” applications to be installed (no more homebrew, or installing off a storage card), only run a single application at a time, and not allow any third party plugins or UI “enhancements” (at least at first, according to MS). That means no SenseUI/Touchflo, SPB Shell, etc. Basically, all the limitations that iPhone critics complain of. As I said before “If I wanted an iPhone, I’d buy an iPhone!”.

However, in its defense, I must admit that I didn’t expect to be so impressed with the bold steps Microsoft is taking here. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the iPhone demographic find this alluring. I predicted previously that this concept would fail since “you can’t beat Apple at their own game”, however I’ve got to say this might actually win over a few hearts. I may yet eat my words.

But, what about the current Windows Mobile demographic (of which I am currently a shameless member of)? I don’t want this fancy social networking, single-app, locked down, and controlled experience. Hardcore users who are looking for the power of a desktop were looking forward to a fresh new UI that wouldn’t make them choose between style and function. Microsoft is now making us choose- stay with WM6.x and have a versatile platform. Or, go with something snazzy like 7 and give up all the reasons you haven’t already jumped to iPhone.
All I can say is that I’m glad Google Android is around to even out the playing field- something tells me the Droid community is about to get a few new recruits. It saddens me to feel this way, but I feel like Windows Mobile died with this announcement. This is not Windows Phone 7… This is Zune Phone 1.0.

Welcome to the future.

UPDATE: It looks like PPCGeeks.com is reporting a set of allegedly “leaked” development docs that point to Windows Phone 7 having some form of multitasking support. Hope on the horizon?

Now, this is very odd news for a variety of reasons.

To start, Apple is infamous for their strict “duplication of services” policy on the App store… it seems kind of arrogant of Opera to think that Apple would approve them, when they have denied every other browser, music player, etc that offers some sort of alternative to a key feature of the device.

Beyond that, Opera’s choice of using their “Mini” app seems confusing as well… Their browser traditionally comes in two flavors: Opera Mobile, and Opera Mini.
For phones that are powerful enough to support it, Opera developed the Mobile version, which is a native app based on their desktop rendering engine (Yes- they do in fact have a desktop browser, a lot of people seem to not know that). It comes pre-installed on many current Windows Phones, supports many browser plugins such as Flash, and can easily be made the default browser on the device.

The “Mini” version, however, is a solution for standard phones that are otherwise deemed not powerful enough to have anything resembling a desktop browser experience. Using a clever trick that resembles remote desktop access, Opera Mini doesn’t actually connect directly to the internet. It connects to Opera’s servers (located in the Netherlands, I believe), which load and render the page, then send a snapshot of it to the handset which can be viewed, scrolled, and clicked just as if they were using it locally. Since this server side compression takes the bulk of the work off the handset, the end result is a page that loads in seconds, and looks like a desktop browser- even on something as simple as a Motorola RAZR.
The lightweight mini version is also not traditionally a native app, preferring to exist as a device-agnostic Java application so it can work on almost any legacy phone out there.

So why does Opera think they can get through the store this time, and why did they choose the “Mini” version as opposed to the Mobile? Clearly, the iPhone is capable of running a full blown desktop browser experience as evidenced by Safari?

I think the two questions together may yield the answer: Opera Mobile on the iPhone would clearly be a duplication of services, since it works so similarly to Safari. However Mini, with its unique server-side compression, is a completely different animal. The result to the user may be a fast loading webpage, however since it doesn’t actually connect directly to the site, some interactive elements of web pages do not respond as expected (sort of like browsing a super fast cached version). Therefore, it could be seen as an interesting web application for large sites that bog the iPhone down, but perhaps not a replacement for Safari.

Could that be their reasoning? And better yet, will Apple buy into it?

Or is Opera just trying to shake things up?